Fifita's wife faces house arrest for fraud

The wife of ex-NRL player David Fifita could avoid jail despite rorting almost $50,000 in single-parent payments in a bid to keep up with others in the couple's social scene by buying clothes and a new car.

Jade Robinson - also known as Jade Fifita - was sentenced in Gosford Local Court on Friday to eight months in jail, with a three-month non-parole period, for intentionally misrepresenting her true circumstances.

But she could avoid prison after magistrate Jennifer Price adjourned the case until late January so the 26-year-old can be assessed for home detention.

The magistrate said Robinson's "consistent and persistent" crimes of non-disclosure - committed when she was aged 20 to 25 - were motivated by greed and a "desire to maintain an outward appearance of success".

Robinson, wearing a black dress, hunched her shoulders and sobbed as her sentence was read out in court.

She was later shielded by Fifita as she was bundled into a waiting car.

Robinson pleaded guilty in June to two counts of receiving financial advantage from a commonwealth entity after she was found to have fraudulently received $48,500 in Centrelink benefits over almost five years.

Related Articles

Court records show she claimed her first single-parent payment in September 2011 and continued to receive benefits until May 2016.

There was a break for a few months in 2013 when she lived in France where Fifita was playing rugby league for French club Lezignan.

Robinson had her payments reinstated on their return to Sydney, despite Fifita signing with NRL club Cronulla.

It's been reported his NRL wage was more than $150,000 but AAP understands it was likely significantly less.

Robinson's husband, the twin of Cronulla prop Andrew Fifita, now plays for Wakefield Trinity in the English Super League.

The couple has been together for more than 11 years and have three young children.

During a search of their Sutherland home in 2015, investigators found a marriage certificate from October 2014, along with a video of their nuptials in Thailand and a ceremony booklet.

But throughout the offending period, Robinson claimed on Centrelink and rental documents she was a single mother and lied to human services in 2016 when she called to say she married Fifita in April.

Ms Price said a report from psychologist Anita Duffy found Robinson had "a personality profile that reflected a lack of maturity" and an "inability to extricate herself out of the situation she had caused herself to be in".

The report stated she "felt the competition to clothe her children ... buy a new car and to keep up with others in social activities" but had no narcissistic or antisocial indicators and showed good prospects of rehabilitation.